A bollard is a rigid, vertical post. Originally used on piers, wharves, or quays for mooring ships and other watercraft, bollards have taken on an expansive role in modern society. Today, bollards are most often used as barricade and barrier devices for outdoor perimeter defense and traffic control.
When used for outdoor perimeter defense of buildings or other structures, bollards are most often arranged in linear or curvilinear, multi-unit formations, which are sized and spaced-apart sufficiently to allow certain kinds of vehicles and/or traffic (e.g., small maintenance or other special purpose vehicles, carts, bicycles, and/or pedestrians) to pass, while denying or limiting others (e.g., cars, trucks, and/or larger equipment). Similarly, bollards may be used as barrier devices to guard landscape, statues, statuaries, and the like.
Bollards may also be used as interior barrier devices to prevent vehicles and/or other movable objects (e.g., forklifts, luggage, grocery carts, and the like) from coming into contact with doorways, garages, portals, refrigerators/freezers, warehouse shelving and pallets, cargo docks, and other objects or framed openings.
Bollards often are used as traffic control barrier devices. They may be arranged to designate traffic lanes, to define pedestrian pathways, to define parking areas, and the like. They may also provide, by virtue of their height and stature, a visible means for warning operators of cars and trucks against inadvertent contact with proximate obstacles and/or hazardous objects.
In addition to fixed bollards, some designs are created for ease of replacement or reconfiguration of the bollard in its location of use. There exist rising and/or retractable bollards for enforcing traffic rules that are time-related, or for restricting access to particular classes of traffic. There are removable bollards which allow access to otherwise restricted areas by service and emergency vehicles. There are robotic bollards capable of moving themselves into a position of use, and self-righting bollards that can return to upright position after contact with a vehicle.
Sometimes, it is desirable to produce a bollard in a post-like, columnar configuration, often uniformly sized and/or shaped. With such configuration, it may also be desirable to provide a crash-rated bollard over-covering, also known as a bollard covering, bollard skin, or bollard sleeve, that may comprise any of a variety of selected design, aesthetic, or functional features. In such event, the bollard covering is enabled to slide over the columnar bollard and attach thereto. Such bollard coverings allow for convenient repair and replacement, whether because of damage or for aesthetic reasons, without disturbing the underlying bollard.
As may be imagined from the above descriptions, bollards and bollard coverings are commonly available in diverse heights, sizes, shapes, materials, designs, and configurations, the particular selection of which may be influenced by those desirable characteristics matching the intended application and/or use. In some configurations, bollards and bollard coverings may comprise surfaces having sections falling in relief below an outer, sometimes contoured, surface, often taking the form of slots, ridges, grooves, or the like. Such features typically are located near the top of the bollard or bollard covering; for example, in the top third of the above-ground height measurement.
Additionally, in support of the various uses and applications to which a bollard may be put, modern bollards and/or bollard coverings may be provided with any of a variety of options and conveniences. As can be seen in the following examples, the variety of uses and applications for bollard products is seemingly endless. For example, modern bollards and/or bollard coverings may be fitted with incandescent lights or light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) for purposes of lighting pathways or drawing attention to the location of the bollard during low light conditions, such as at night or in adverse weather. They may be fitted with coverings to prevent denting and scratching of either the bollard or a contacting object. They may be provided with decorative caps, such as pyramidal, round, flat, or other shapes; or with functional caps, such as T-tops for affixing tape for delineation of motorways, pedestrian walkways, or the like. Bollards and/or bollard coverings may be fitted with audio speakers and supporting components in order to enhance outdoor ambiance. They may be fitted with cameras and supporting components in order to support security objectives. They may have integral light reflectors, may be finished with light reflective coatings, or may carry light reflective tape or bands, all for enhanced visibility during low light conditions. Bollards may be fitted with switch or button apparatus for pedestrian crosswalk right-of-way requests. In many bollard and/or bollard covering configurations, such optional components, features, and conveniences may be located within, or associated with, the surface relief features discussed above. For example, lights, reflective elements, or speaker components may be associated with one or more grooves or slots disposed near an upper surface of the bollard and/or bollard covering.
Bollards and bollard coverings are manufactured from materials most often including metals, such as iron, steel, aluminum, and non-ferrous metal alloys; concrete; fiberglass; and plastic. Selection of the material from which to fabricate a particular bollard product is, of course, dependent upon the intended use and application to which the bollard product will be put, along with the ease of configuring the bollard and/or bollard covering to accommodate and/or accept any required optional components or features.
Most often, metallic bollards and bollard coverings are manufactured from prefabricated pipe or metal castings. During manufacture of a bollard or bollard covering from a pipe or casting, the bollard product must often be put through secondary forming processes, such as one or more cutting, welding, and/or machining processes. Such processes might be required, for example, in order to provide mounting surfaces amenable for affixing the bollard to an in-ground or above ground mounting feature, and to provide surface relief and configuration features, such as those discussed above, in order to accommodate optional components or features.
Disadvantageously, such secondary forming processes most often must be customized to accommodate the particular requirements of each various bollard design, size, or configuration progressing through a manufacturing line or process. Set-up costs and manufacturing inefficiencies occasioned by frequent bollard and/or bollard covering design or configuration changes may significantly increase manufacturing costs. Alternatively, for the sake of manufacturing cost efficiencies, bollard and/or bollard covering design or configuration may be limited by a manufacturer to only certain highly saleable products. Yet additionally, when large runs of a particular bollard product are undertaken by a manufacturer for the sake of production economies of scale, warehousing, inventory, and storage costs, along with associated cost of goods on-hand and taxes, may be significantly increased by having to keeping a large number of products and/or product skews in inventory to serve the marketplace.
Accordingly, in order to overcome at least some of the above-noted deficiencies in the prior art, and to meet at least some of the attendant needs recognized, it would be beneficial to provide bollard coverings fabricated according to a unique modular design and construction. Availability of a unique modular design and construction for such bollard covering products would provide for greater manufacturing efficiencies, and would allow an enhanced diversity and greater number of bollard covering products to be available in the marketplace. Use of such unique modular design and construction for bollard covering products would allow for greater numbers of customer-required configurations and more options, greater design flexibility, and lower costs, all of which would be beneficial in providing those features, functions, and uses demanded in the modern marketplace, and at a more efficient price. It is, thus, to the provision of such unique modular design and construction for bollard covering products, and associated methods of use thereof, that the present invention is directed.